Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called an early election for November 29 on Monday, in a bid to strengthen his mandate after a fragmented parliament rejected the government’s key housing decrees last week amid widespread protests.
However, senior members of Sanchez’s own Socialists have in the past year faced allegations of graft, dragging down the party’s already weak approval rating which has hovered at around 26-31% throughout his tenure. The snap vote is a high-stakes gamble for Sanchez, whose Socialist Party trails in nearly every opinion poll. An electoral defeat would spell the end of one of Europe ‘s last few left-leaning governments at a time when the far right is making unprecedented gains across the region as a growing swathe of European voters desert the centre ground. The premier acknowledged having made mistakes and falling short of campaign promises. The conservatives have been calling on Sanchez to dissolve parliament and call early elections for most of the current legislature. Polls suggest a coalition led by PP with the support of Vox is the most likely outcome in Spain, ushering a far-right party into central government for the first time since the return of democracy after the death of dictator Francisco Franco. Vox leader Santiago Abascal warned the election result would be unpredictable despite favourable polling for the right. Sanchez took office after leading a move to oust centre-right Mariano Rajoy in the wake of major corruption scandals within Rajoy’s PP. That was achieved after promising a highly controversial amnesty for pro-independence Catalan leaders in exchange for their support, a move still bitterly remembered by many voters as a betrayal of Spanish unity.
“I also know that part of that social majority is dissatisfied today,” he said, but vowed to fight for Spain to remain “a bastion of openness, social justice and environmental responsibility”. The main opposition People’s Party (PP) wrote “AT LAST” in a post on X, with its leader, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, set to hold a news conference later on Monday. “Surveys said the same thing in 2023 and Sanchez managed to form a majority with all his accomplices,” he told TV channel Antena 3.
